Karisa Chiu, Violin

Biography

Violinist Karisa Chiu, age 17 is a merit scholarship recipient at the Music Institute of Chicago's Academy program where she is studying with Almita Vamos.  She began playing the violin at age three with her father Cornelius Chiu, a violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Chiu was recently selected as a finalist in the 2017 YoungArts Competition.  She is also the First Prize winner of the 2016 Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition, the Fourth Prize winner of the 2015 Cooper International Competition, and a recipient of the prestigious Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarship from the 2016 Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Audition.  Other competition successes include the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, the Stanger Young Artists Concerto Audition, the Montzuka Young Artists Competition, the Society of American Musicians Competition, the Sejong Music Competition, the Chinese Fine Arts Society Competition, the DePaul Community Music Concerto Competition, the American Opera Society scholarship Competition, and Walgreens National Concerto Competition. 

Ms. Chiu has been featured as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra, the West Suburban Symphony Orchestra, and the Oistrach Symphony Orchestra.  She has played in master classes given by renowned artists such as Ida Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Mauricio Fuks, Joel Smirnoff, Ilya Kaler, Victor Danchenko, and Dora Schwarzberg.

As a chamber musician, she has won many competitions including first place at the Discover Chamber Music Competition, the Gold Medal from the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, the Bronze Medal from the M Prize International Chamber Music Competition, the Silver Medal from the Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition, and the Honorable Mention prize from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.